Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new algorithm for robustly controlling a tailsitter flying machine in hover position. Using the algorithm, the tailsitter is able to recover from any orientation, including upside down.

This video shows tethered quadrocopters flying steadily together at high speeds exceeding 50 km/h in a confined space. With the tether exerting more than 13 gs of centripetal force, multiple quadrotors are able to fly 1.7m- radius circular trajectories in formation across different orientations in space and then successfully perform a coordinated braking maneuver.

In this video update, we show that a quadrocopter can be safely piloted by hand after a motor fails, without the aid of a motion capture system. This follows our previous video, where we demonstrated how a complete propeller failure can be automatically detected, and that a quadrocopter can still maintain stable flight despite the complete loss of a propeller.

The team at the ETH Flying Machine Arena has released three new videos, demonstrating quadrotors building tensile structures, tossing a ball back and forth, and refining a figure-eight trajectory using iterative learning. Worth the watch!!

Check out live tweets, amazing photos, TED blog posts and awesome video coverage of the session Those Flying Things at this year’s TED Global, featuring the work of automation and controls expert Raffaello D’Andrea, and drone ecologist Lian Pin Koh. We will be adding new material here as it becomes available, so check back soon. Photo credit: James Duncan Davidson.

With reporting and photos by Dario Brescianini and Mark Mueller and timelapse video by James Duncan Davidson.

Raffaello D’Andrea juggles quadrotors at TED Global 2013.

A quadrocopter swoops through the air to serve a glass of water without spilling a drop. Another gets two of its propellers cut off, yet still easily flies across the arena. “It looks like magic!” says ETH Zurich‘s Raffaello D’Andrea, but it took a lot of research, hard work and planning to bring this ‘magic trick’ to TED Global.